Diplomatic Relations
by foolofatook001
Summary: In which there is a diplomatic envoy to the Fire Nation from Luna. It's a crossover! Oneshot, and pure and utter crack.


"Who are we visiting this time, Jacin?" Winter asked as they climbed into the hover. Jacin consulted their schedule.

"Fire Lord Zuko, of the Fire Nation. It's a small sovereign country unaffiliated with any of the larger unions on Earth," he reported.

Winter tapped her chin with her slender fingers thoughtfully. "What sort of information do we have on the Fire Nation?" she asked, taking the port from her guard and scrolling through the short page that Cinder's intelligence agency had managed to dig up.

Jacin leaned back in his seat. "They're fiercely independent. Apparently they've had some trouble with dictators in the past, a little like Luna. Their people also sometimes have the ability to generate fire."

Winter looked up, surprised. "Really?"

Jacin nodded.

"Fascinating," Winter murmured. "Their own gift."

"The current Fire Lord - their ruler - is pretty young, only around twenty. He's been ruling since he was seventeen, however," Jacin said. "He has the fire ability; from what we've been able to glean he's quite good with it. His wife - "

"He's married?" Winter interrupted. Jacin glowered at her. She smiled innocently.

"His _wife_, the Fire Lady, apparently has the ability to manipulate water," Jacin continued. "They were only married recently."

Winter hummed to herself as the landscape below the hover changed from city to forest. "What does this young ruler look like?" she asked.

"You might want to prepare yourself beforehand," Jacin said with a strange look in his eyes. He pulled up a picture on the port and passed it over to her.

"Prepare for wh - " She broke off, taking in the picture in front of her. The young man staring out of the screen was handsome, with dark hair, sharp features, and golden eyes. But one side of his face was marred by a horrible red and pink scar, making his left eye barely a slit. It looked as though he had sustained a terrible burn. "What happened to him?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jacin's face was sympathetic. "They say it was his father, the previous Fire Lord - one of the dictators."

Winter realized her hand was resting on her own scars and let it fall. "His own father… I, at least, did not have the ties of blood to add to the betrayal."

Jacin took her hand silently, lacing his fingers through hers, and she gave him a small smile. "It appears that we will have much in common with this Fire Lord Zuko," she said, looking down at the picture again, where the Fire Lord stood beside a lovely girl in red with a dark complexion and stunning blue eyes whose fingers were laced with her husband's, much as Jacin's were with Winter's.

o0o

"The Lunar ambassador has arrived, Fire Lord Zuko," the herald announced, and Zuko let the flames surrounding the throne die down a little. He'd been interested when he'd been contacted by the new Lunar queen, Selene. He had refused to have anything to do with Levana's regime; it reminded him too much of his father's rule and he would never help perpetuate anything like it. But with a new, Earthen-raised queen on the throne, who been vouched for personally by Emperor Kaito, whom Zuko trusted, there could be some potential for connection.

Beside him, Katara stifled a yawn, and Zuko grinned at her. "You can go if you want," he told her in a low voice.

She snorted. "And miss the one thing that could be possibly interesting today? How stupid do you think I am?"

Zuko shrugged, though the small smile never left his face. "Just thought I'd ask."

"As if," Katara said. "I'm the Fire Lady now. And I want to meet the new Lunar ambassador. I've heard a lot about her."

"So have I," Zuko agreed.

The doors swung open. "Ambassador Winter Hayle-Blackburn and Sir Jacin Clay," came the announcement.

A couple started down the long hall leading to the double thrones. The woman moved with grace and poise, while the man was clearly watchful and tense, though not overly so, walking two paces behind her. He had the bearing of a warrior, Zuko thought.

"Welcome to the Fire Nation," Zuko said once they had approached and bowed respectfully. As the ambassador straightened up from her flawless curtsy, Zuko's good eye widened. She was beautiful - but that wasn't why he was staring. He'd heard all the stories about the former Lunar princess's legendary beauty, though it was truly better in person. No, it was the three pale, jagged scars running down her right cheek that made both he and Katara suck in a low breath.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," the ambassador said, and her voice was musical. "I was happy to hear you were thinking of reopening relations with Luna."

It took Zuko a second to regain his train of thought. "Ah - yes. Since Levana has been… deposed, I am much more comfortable with the idea of supporting Luna through trade."

The ambassador gave them a stunning smile. "I understand completely."

"Why don't we go to the council room," Zuko suggested. "My advisors have drawn up a trade agreement that I think you'll like to take a look at."

"That sounds wonderful," said the ambassador.

o0o

The Lunar ambassador and her guard stayed for dinner that evening, since trade negotiations had run long.

"So, Ambassador Winter," Katara asked as the main course was served. "How are the reconstruction efforts on Luna going? I know the revolution was a turbulent time for all of you." The ambassador had insisted on them calling her by her first name (the guard, Jacin, had snorted with a slight smirk) and Katara, who had instantly taken a liking to the sweet but also sharply intelligent Lunar ambassador, had taken her up on it.

"Well, Lady Katara, it's actually going quite well," Winter replied with one of her patented stunning smiles. Zuko and Jacin exchanged a look. "And I have been trying to normalize things with Earth - with Jacin's help, of course. But I will be glad to see Selene again. It has been several months," she added sadly.

Katara nodded. "I know what you mean. I miss my brother when he's off on another diplomatic mission with his wife. They go all over the planet - I'm pretty sure they have friends in every major city in the world."

Winter smiled. "I understand the Fire Nation underwent its own revolution not so long ago," she said. Though her tone was light, her grey eyes were probing.

"Yes," Zuko said shortly. Winter cocked her head to the side slightly, her scars gleaming in the warm light of the dining room.

"The previous Fire Lord was a tyrant," Katara said, her eyes hard as she remembered Ozai.

"Like my stepmother?" Winter asked.

"Yes," Zuko said again.

"We both seem to have been cursed with a bad parent, Fire Lord Zuko. Among other things," Winter said, absently tracing over her marred cheek. Zuko's jaw tightened, and his left hand curled into a fist.

"Among other things," he agreed.

o0o

The Fire Lord and Lady saw them off warmly the next morning, seeing them to their ship. Winter gave Katara a hug before she stepped away, smiling at her. The younger woman had consented to show her some of her water abilities - "waterbending," she called it - after dinner last night and Winter had been fascinated. The Fire Lord had managed to draw Jacin into a discussion of battle tactics, which Jacin had always had somewhat of a weakness for. He had then been convinced to talk to Katara, who also had an interest in medicine. Winter had smiled proudly; she loved it when Jacin branched out a little.

While Jacin and Katara had gotten into a lively debate about the merits of natural treatments, Winter had spoken with Fire Lord Zuko about their respective experiences growing up under a repressive regime as royalty.

"I didn't know how wrong it was until I was thirteen," Zuko had admitted quietly. "I disagreed with my father during one of his council meetings, and, well - " He gestured sarcastically at his face.

"I dared to refuse my stepmother's wishes," Winter told him, staring into the fire that blazed in the fireplace. "She thought to destroy my beauty and force me to use my gift." Her face lifted into a quietly defiant smile. "But she did not succeed, and I have never cared for beauty."

"Really," Zuko said dryly, raising his one good eyebrow. Winter laughed.

"I hear you can manipulate fire, your Majesty?" she said, smiling, an inquisitive light in her eyes.

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes…" he said, dragging out the word.

"May I see?"

Zuko pressed his palms together, then opened them. A small flame appeared in his cupped hands. He made it blaze up, then brought it down to barely a flicker, then extinguished it with a clap of his hands. Winter clapped delightedly.

"Amazing!"

Zuko inclined his head. "Thank you, Ambassador."

Now he smiled and raised his hand as Jacin and Winter boarded the shuttle, Katara standing next to him doing the same.

"I think Luna and the Fire Nation have a long and prosperous future ahead of them," one of Zuko's advisors commented from behind them.

* * *

**A/N: **This is just straight crack - nothing more, nothing less. I started thinking about the similarities between Zuko and Winter one day in class and this happened as a result. Threw some Zutara in there, because why not? (Though I was thinking about it, and Mai actually has a good number of similarities with Jacin).

Anyway. Hope you liked it? It's really weird, I know.


End file.
